Hello, I’m Felicia the calligraphy person, I use pointed pens for calligraphy, and I love colours, so when I was asked to give these inks a try, I said yes! First thoughts: My first impressions are that these inks look beautiful. They are stored in these cylindrical glass bottles with a plastic black screw on cap that opens and closes easily, feels functional, minimalist and clean, in a good size. What I’m often not so keen about as a calligrapher is the neck of the bottle being too small to dip the nib into, and the Elixir ink bottles have a good size, they are nice to hold, open and close, it doesn’t feel or look flimsy. When you open the bottles up, they do have quite a bit of a smell that reminds me of my old Sakura watercolours or paint, and I wonder if it’s the binder that is responsible for the smell. There’s no ingredient list, so I have no idea what goes into the inks. The colours are beautiful too. I was quite struck by how Sunset Siloso looks in the bottle, it’s completely translucent, and I must say I was quite excited at the […]
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I love writing – the simple act of moving a pen over paper and seeing a line of ink appear. The process is magical and personal. I also love looking at other people’s handwriting. It’s a little piece of them, their energy and style. It doesn’t matter if it is the work of a calligraphy master or still looks like infant school print, it is that person’s own unique artistic expression. If you can put pen to paper and write, you are being creative! My own handwriting… I was super critical of my own handwriting until recently. Now I appreciate it and enjoy it. It makes me laugh that my daughter’s teachers at school commend it when my own teachers complained about it – my messy writing was always mentioned in my reports. In my mid-teens I suddenly got into pens and writing and upped my game. I haven’t stopped working on improving it since. Moving from ballpoint pens to fountain pens 15 years ago was, I suppose, a natural progression. It was around that time I started keeping a journal just as an excuse to write and use my fountain pens. So here are a few hints and tips […]
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Hello everyone, this is Clement here, and I am very honored to be invited as a guest writer for OFP! I am here to start a series of posts on Chinese Pen Calligraphy. It is one of the interesting ways to use a fountain pen, yet has not been widely explored, at least in the English-speaking world. Ever since I started posting on the Singapore Fountain Pens Lovers Facebook group back in 2014, many questions came to me on what pen/nib I used to obtain the effects that were shown in the writings. To be honest, I never really had a clear idea, and was experimenting with many different things (flex nibs, fude nibs, naginata nibs, ……) but I did not really have a clear idea also. Currently, after 3 to 4 years of testing and experimentation, I might have a better idea to justify a formal post on this matter. However, do note that this is what is written for now only. Maybe 3 to 4 years later, I might have a very different view again and come back to refute all these. What Makes Chinese Writing Look Good? Before we continue further, please look at these two characters. […]
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Alright, as promised yesterday, I have an awesome giveaway for my readers today. In case you’re wondering, yes, it is the Online VISION Special Edition Calligraphy Set which has been launched to commemorate SG50, Singapore’s 50th birthday! The sets are disappearing fast, but I’ve managed to secure 2 sets to be given away, thanks to the very supportive sponsorship of Fook Hing Trading Co. The VISION Calligraphy set consists of a pen with 3 italic nibs of different sizes: 0.8mm, 1.4mm, and 1.8mm, which can be fitted onto the brilliant red body of the VISION fountain pen. The pen itself has a red barrel, the colour of the red of the Singapore flag. It is made of aluminium with a brushed surface, and on it there is a diamond-engraved map of Southeast Asia, featuring Singapore as the star of the region. The pen comes together with a chrome cap with the SG50 logo engraved on it. There is also a 15ml bottle of Rubin Red ink included – “Rubin” being the German word for “Ruby”. The ink is of a bright red hue. The packaging of the product is very attractive – in contrast to the metallic material of the pen, the […]
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If you are looking for a special and exotic nib, try out the Sailor Fude nib. A couple of years ago, I bought this pen because it really fascinated me, but due to multiple distractions, it has been cast aside and almost forgotten. Such a pity! This pen is a Sailor Profit fitted with a Fude nib. By the way, it’s pronounced more like “fuh-deh” and not really “fewd”. It is one of the more affordable, below 20 USD pens, which is a real delight for anyone who want to try one of Sailor’s exotic nibs but don’t want to detonate a bomb on the wallet. You can get it on Amazon as well. It comes in a cardboard box – don’t expect too much from the packaging department at such a low price point – but it protects the pen well. Unboxing it, you’ll get the Sailor Profit Fude pen itself, as well as 2 Sailor cartridges. Sailor cartridges are for Sailor pens only and you can’t use international cartridges in the pens. The pen is very easy to dismantle. Just unscrew the cap, unscrew the barrel, plug in a cartridge, and screw all the parts back. This nib has a […]
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At this time of year the cultural narrative centers on gifts—with the focus on the gifts we buy. While I enjoy those kinds of gifts as well as anyone, I’m cognizant that they are not the only kind of gift. Indeed other kinds of gifts can bring surprising joy. Sometimes the simplest written message can be significant– I’ve had just that kind of experience lately and it’s gotten me thinking. In the last two years three elders in my family have passed away. They were all in their 90s—with long memories full of family stories. I inherited many boxes of memorabilia which contained, it turns out, some intriguing writings and drawings. I came across one little chapbook my grandfather wrote to celebrate Christmas in 1920. In it, he wrote poems and stories to describe my grandmother at the piano, playing and singing and their happiness with their little baby, my mother. What a gift to find these stories and drawings now—this first Christmas without my mom! What a comfort to know that she was so loved within a happy family. I was reminded that as a child, seeing my grandfather’s writings, inspired me to learn penmanship. So he is to […]
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Howdy, Readers! I haven’t been blogging for 2 months now – what a mess! In today’s post I’m going to introduce something pretty exciting: a very flexible nib on a modern pen! I hope this makes up for the lost time and lost pen-love on my blog! Those familiar with fountain pens may know that flexible nibs are great for writing really nice cursive calligraphic styles, such as the Copperplate style. The tines of the nib are bendy, thus the term “flexible”, or “flex” in short. When you apply pressure onto the nib, the tines bend, spread apart, and a thick line of ink is laid onto the paper. We are able to find a number of such nibs in vintage pens, which are definitely the more popular choice, because – there isn’t really isn’t much of a choice. Modern flex pens tend to be expensive and there aren’t a lot of options to choose from. One alternative to put a flex nib on a modern pen, but once again, you’ll need to search for the right nib in order to fit the pen that you like so much! There are also options to get the nibs modified (or “modded” in short-speak), […]
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It’s been a long time since I’ve reviewed anything on this site! It’s not that I have no more pens to review – in fact, the number of pens waiting to be reviewed is a few times more than the number of pens I have actually reviewed on this site. But today, I am choosing this pen to talk about because I thought it fits into the Christmassy Season of Giving. I received this pen from The Pen Company a while ago and I couldn’t be happier when I received it! Presenting… the Lamy Joy AL Calligraphy Pen! For those of you who are familiar with the “nomenclature” of Lamy pens, you can pretty much guess that this is named “AL” because of the aluminium cap, as opposed to the glossy, all-plastic cap and barrel of the original Lamy Joy. This Lamy Joy AL has a silver aluminium cap with a black clip, and the barrel, while still made of plastic, has a smooth black lacquer over it. It is not glossy, but matte, the way I like it. Unless I’m mistaken, the AL release comes only in one colour and finish so far. I’ll be looking […]
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Some delightful Talens gouache (pronounced goo-ahsh). I bought a tube of black gouache from Straits Art Co. to test out with my dip nibs. Just mixed it with water at about a 1/3 ratio (I added water again and again so now I can’t remember how much I added in total) until I managed to get a nice wet black line out. One issue with this is that it dries out quickly. So the remaining gouache in the bottle couldn’t be used anymore and I need to redilute it or prepare a new concoction. After a week I tried to redo it but couldn’t get the same consistency… 🙁 MaybellineI am the founder of this website. Chemist by day, slacker by night, fanatic of stationery all the time. I write with my left hand, but can also do the same with my right hand – it just won’t look very pretty. https://onfountainpens.com
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A reader recently wrote me an email to ask me about getting a new fountain pen for exams, in the hope of increasing his writing speed. Being a fountain pen user for some time now, I have come to accept the reality that fountain pens DO NOT improve your handwriting, as the myths go. Instead, you have to work from the root up, and focus on your own writing techniques first. There is only so much an expensive Mont Blanc can do for your handwriting, if you don’t change your writing habits. Well, in fact, it can do pretty much nothing. With an improved technique and practice, you can expect to write quickly and more nicely with just about ANY pen that you use. In this day of cheap, commoditized ball-point pens and touch-screen devices, the emphasis on handwriting seems to be almost nonexistent. Even during my initial years of schooling, penmanship lessons involved mainly tracing out alphabets in guidelines, and I recall nothing about holding a pen the correct way. So I believe that is the reason why people nowadays grip pens instead of hold them. A pen is not the handlebars of your bicycle that you grip on […]
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